We could all complain about the hardships, but it sounds a lot better if you can croon over timeless brass hip-hop/R`n`B melodies like a skint Bill Withers. Blacc`s lyricisms are sanguine statements wrapped in mournful tones. His cloaked, clandestine approach to upbeat, penniless alcoholic`s anthem `I Require A Dollar`, yet powerful indiscretion on the tender `Momma Hold My Hand` signifies a powerful statement on the delicacy of spirit over money.
And a somewhat novel re-imagination of The Velvet Underground`s `Femme Fatale`, now a swooning soul romance, adds whim to a sweeping LP. `Good Things` is the soulful protests of the recession-bitten man.
Best Bit: When the tapping piano of opening track `I Take A Dollar` begins, and sets the yardstick in the backbone for how `Well Things` will unfold.
The National - High Violet
Finally, on their fifth album, The Subject are facing the realization that ten days of unfazed dedication deserve. It`s a realist`s desolation, and at times allegorical of the test they have faced in the hunt for recognition. Yet this desolation is instrumented so masterfully, and soft with such candid emotion, that their sound becomes a glorious addiction. One feels the need to live what`s paining this baritone cynic, be it the debts of adulthood ("I still owe money to the money to the money I owe") or the burden of pressures ("It takes an ocean not to break"). `High Violet` is an unrestrained, naked declaration of all that worries the new American man, imprinted on some of the most tender and grandest rock music you`ll ever hear.
Best Bit: The last of dark misanthropic humour on `Conversation 16`.
*I love most homemade Youtube homages are bumbling messpots, but this is quite brilliant. Some GENIUS out there, has put The National's 'Conversation 16' over some footage from Romero's Night Of The Living Dead. It works.*
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